Who has had the biggest influence on your career?
My friend Paul Tudor Jones. We were both Southerners in the big city of New York. Paul got me my first job, with E.F. Hutton as a runner on the floor of the cotton exchange. That was many moons ago, but I would say that his real mentorship came when I started trading commodities and launched a CTA fund. I didn’t know that it would turn into a hedge fund, but when I started to raise money for a hedge fund, he was a big supporter with his investors.
His approach to research and trading had a real impact too. He wasn’t worried about small stuff. He taught me to think in points, not dollars, and he always used to say, “It’s just points, it is not money.” He gave me an ongoing tutorial in disassociating oneself from the...
